Online Information and Offline Competition: The Emergence of Broadband Internet and Brick-and-Mortar Retailer Survival

This research examines how information access affects competition in offline markets. I study the relationship between broadband internet availability and brick-and-mortar retailer survival in the United States from 1999 through 2008, leveraging a period when competition from e-commerce channels was minimal and broadband’s primary effect on retailers stemmed from reduced search costs. Using an instrumental variables estimation strategy that links broadband availability to local slope terrain, I find that broadband availability decreased the likelihood of retailer exit. These effects were more pronounced for retailers that faced higher discovery-related search costs ex ante, specifically young and independent establishments and those in dense or urban markets. The findings suggest that online information access can reshape offline competitive dynamics by altering consumer search and discovery. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/stsc.2025.0398 .